In fifth grade, students will learn about the risks of sexually transmitted diseases. In middle school, teachers will discuss the psychological and physical consequences of rape and sexual assault. By high school, students will talk about condoms and the “morning-after pill”.

After nearly two years of debate and numerous drafts, California’s State Board of Education quietly adopted its first-ever set of “health education content standards” this week.

The guidelines spell out exactly what California’s more than 6 million students from kindergarten through 12th grade are expected to know about health and are required as part of a controversial 2004 law that replaced a patchwork of often contradictory statutes on sex education. The law requires that all high schools give “medically accurate” information about condoms and other forms of birth control.

The health curriculum, which also covers drug and alcohol use, nutrition, exercise and environmental health, is far broader than sex education. But teaching about sex — and at what age — is an explosive issue for many parents, and that topic continued to divide groups Thursday.

Advocates say that today’s students need to be armed with sound information amid a host of alarming statistics. Earlier this week, a new federal study found that one in four female teenagers have at least one sexually transmitted disease.

“Obesity, diabetes, sexually transmitted diseases — our students have major health problems, and they really need good information,” said State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, who is thrilled that the state board of education adopted the health standards unanimously. “We’re talking about how to stay well, how to protect yourself. Sexual health after puberty is extremely important.”

Conservative organizations blasted the new standards, saying that it is providing too much information too soon.

“This is another reason for parents to get their children out of the government school system and into private schools, church schools and home schools,” said Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, who urged parents to write letters opting their children out of the classes, something allowed by the state law. “These new regulations ensure that children will be taught to use condoms and birth control pills.”

In 2003, Kuehl sponsored SB71, the “Comprehensive Sexual Health Education Law.” The law, which went into effect in 2004, required sex education in California to be medically accurate, objective and respectful of gay and lesbian youths. Since the law was passed, health classes have covered those topics. The new state health standards echo the law already on the books in greater detail.

The law also banned “abstinence-only” sex education in California public schools, where information about preventing pregnancy and STDs is limited to abstinence from sexual activity. Such abstinence-only programs are preferred and partly funded by the federal government.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood applauded the state board for adopting the new standards. Both organizations sponsored SB71.

“We are one giant step closer to ensuring that all of California’s students receive accurate and comprehensive information about sex,” ACLU attorney Maggie Crosby said in a statement.

And now that the state board of education has unanimously agreed to a set of standards, everything else — from teaching materials to the textbooks that California will eventually adopt — are likely to fall in line.

“We’re building a house, and this is pouring the foundation,” said Mary Marks, a health education consultant for the California Department of Education.

“The law is great, but there’s a big question of implementation,” said Phyllida Burlingame, an ACLU attorney and coordinator of the California Sex Education Roundtable. “Now, in a significant way, the state is communicating what its values are.”

Marks, from the California Department of Education, said it is critical for students to be taught about drugs, sex and violence early on. Under the new state standards, kindergartners will learn that tobacco smoke is harmful and should be avoided.

“You have to be ahead of the game instead of behind it,” she said. “It doesn’t do any good to teach kids how to resist drugs if in fact they are already using and abusing them.”